Defined: Why Bangladesh is rewriting textbooks on 1971 Liberation Conflict | Defined Information

Ziaur was the founding father of the Bangladesh Nationalist Occasion (BNP) and husband of present BNP chief Khaleda Zia. Mujib, father of just lately deposed Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, led the Bangladesh liberation wrestle.

This isn’t the primary time that Bangladesh textbooks have undergone such modifications.

The legacies of Mujib and Ziaur have at all times been politically contested, and the query of who proclaimed the independence of Bangladesh disputed. Whereas the Awami League, the occasion which steered the Bangladesh liberation wrestle below Mujib, claims that it was ‘Bangabandhu’ who made the declaration, the BNP credit its founder Ziaur.

This has meant that official historical past has different relying on the dispensation in Dhaka. In 1978, throughout Ziaur’s reign as Bangladesh President, official historical past was modified for the primary time to proclaim Ziaur as the one who made the declaration of independence.

Since then, official histories have been rewritten a number of instances, together with most just lately after Sheikh Hasina got here to energy in 2009. In 2010, the third quantity of ‘Bangladesh Independence Conflict: Paperwork’, printed in 1978, presenting Ziaur because the proclaimer of independence, was declared null and void by the Bangladesh Supreme Courtroom.

Hasina was eliminated on the again of a preferred agitation final August. The BNP and different anti-Awami events maintain vital sway within the interim authorities, below whom Mujib and his legacy has been focused. Actually, one of many defining pictures from August 5, the day Hasina fled to Delhi, was that of protesters desecrating a statue of Mujib in Dhaka. Protesters additionally torched and vandalised Mujib’s residence (which was transformed right into a memorial by Hasina in 2001), the place he and most of his household have been killed in a 1975 coup.

Factually, on shaky floor

On a cursory perusal of varied up to date sources, the declare that Ziaur, not Mujib, proclaimed the independence of Bangladesh doesn’t appear to have a lot factual foundation. Whereas Ziaur did make a proclamation on behalf of ‘Bangabandhu’ on March 27, 1971, Mujib most positively issued the primary proclamation a day earlier than, simply earlier than being arrested by Pakistani authorities.

The US Protection Intelligence Company’s (DIA’s) now-unclassified report back to the White Home on March 26, 1971 acknowledged: “Pakistan was thrust into civil conflict immediately when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman proclaimed the east wing of the two-part nation to be ‘the sovereign unbiased Individuals’s Republic of Bangla Desh’”.

The minutes of the Washington Particular Actions Group Assembly on March 26, 1971, which was chaired by then US Nationwide Safety Adviser Henry Kissinger, additionally point out Mujib’s declaration. Whereas telling Kissinger why the talks between Pakistan navy dictator Yahya Khan and Mujib broke down, then Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) Richard Helms stated: “A clandestine radio broadcast has Mujibur Rahman declaring the independence of Bangla Desh.”

Most newspapers around the globe on March 27, 1971, too reported Mujib’s proclamation of independence. In keeping with the report by the New Delhi correspondent of The Related Press, “… Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the nationalist chief of East Pakistan, was arrested solely hours after he had proclaimed his area unbiased…”.

Ziaur’s declaration

Mujib had transmitted his message by way of telegram, in keeping with Syed Badrul Ahsan’s biography of ‘Bangabandhu’. He possible despatched the message round 12.30 am on March 26, 1971.

Ahsan wrote: “As the primary sounds of gunfire have been heard from the method main out of the cantonment, his elder daughter Hasina remembers, Mujib despatched out a message by way of wi-fi proclaiming Bangladesh’s independence…” (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman: From Insurgent to Founding Father, 2014).

The proclamation that was broadly reported, nevertheless, was aired from the Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra (Free Bengal Radio Station) in Kalurghat, Chittagong (now Chattogram) later that day. The textual content of Mujib’s declaration was learn out by Awami League member M A Hannan in Bengali within the afternoon of March 26, 1971.

Ziaur Rahman, then a mutinying main within the Pakistan Military, learn out one other declaration on March 27, 1971, which too was broadly reported, though newspapers misidentified Ziaur as “Zia Khan”.

Mujib vs Ziaur

On the coronary heart of the contestation relating to who declared Bangladesh’s freedom are what Mujib and Ziaur stand for in Bangladesh. Mujib gained the 1973 elections with an enormous mandate, though by most accounts, the method was mired by rigging and manipulation. He went on to ban Islamist events, which he claimed supported Pakistan through the Liberation Conflict, and sought to ascertain Bangladesh as a secular republic.

He was assassinated, together with most of his household, in 1975 through the first of a number of coups in unbiased Bangladesh. This paved the way in which for the eventual rise of Ziaur Rahman, who went from being Bangladesh’s navy chief to President. Ziaur, too, can be killed throughout one other coup in 1981, however throughout his years in energy, he ended the clampdown on Islamist components and most notably, eliminated ‘secularism’ from the Bangladesh Structure in 1978.

This has until date remained the central competition between the political successors of Mujib and Ziaur, Hasina and Khaleda. Hasina governments have notably clamped down on Islamist components, whereas below Khaleda, they’ve been emboldened and given house in excessive places of work.

The choice by the present dispensation to focus on the contributions of Ziaur in Bangladesh’s Liberation Conflict over these of Mujib, displays the legacy they want to affiliate with and the imaginative and prescient of Bangladesh they champion.